DOJ sues WA over ‘anti-Catholic’ mandatory reporter law
DOJ investigating new WA law requiring clergy to report child abuse
Clergy in Washington state are now mandatory reporters of child abuse under a new law.
SEATTLE - The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Washington over its alleged "anti-Catholic" law requiring priests to report child abuse.
The DOJ takes issues with Washington's newly passed "mandatory reporter" law, which requires clergy members to report abuse to police if someone discloses it during confession.
In Catholic tradition, confession is a sacred act and anything that is said during it is confidential. Historically, any clergy member who discloses what was confessed could be immediately excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
What is Washington's mandatory reporter law?
The backstory:
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law a bill requiring clergy members to report abuse, despite the traditional rules surrounding the confessional seal.
The Trump administration says this "violates the free exercise of religion for all Catholics," and forces priests to violate religious laws to accommodate state law. The DOJ has also intervened in the preexisting suit against the state, Etienne v. Ferguson.
"Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society," wrote Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. "Senate Bill 5375 unconstitutionally forces Catholic priests in Washington to choose between their obligations to the Catholic Church and their penitents or face criminal consequences, while treating the priest-penitent privilege differently than other well-settled privileges. The Justice Department will not sit idly by when States mount attacks on the free exercise of religion."
Can Washington make clergy members break their vow of confidentiality?
The United States' First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Washington similarly has the same rights to religious freedom enshrined in Article 1, Section 11 of the state constitution. However, it was amended in 1904 to state that freedom of religion would not be so construed as to "justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state."
Separation of church and state is suggested but never explicitly stated in early American legal texts, but has been implicit in many court rulings since the founding of the nation.
Judges have debated interpretations of the separation of church and state for decades and how it applies to states, such as in Reynolds v. United States (1878), Church of the Holy Trinity v. the United States (1892), Everson v. Board of Education (1947) and Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004).
It remains to be seen if a judge will sustain or strike down Washington's mandatory reporter law.
The Source: Information in this story comes from the U.S. Department of Justice and previous coverage from FOX 13 Seattle.
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